This invention relates to centrifugal force operated hydraulic governors, and more particularly to a hydraulic governor which may be mounted on one side of a rotatable member and which also provides a two stage governor pressure-speed curve.
Hydraulic governors used in automatic transmission usually include a valve member which is reciprocable radially in a bore for controlling the passage of fluid from a pressure source in the transmission to a lower pressure operated device, such as a valve. These governors normally include a stem or rod extending from the movable valve through a hole extending diametrically through a shaft, such as the transmission output shaft. One or more weights are connected to the other end of the stem or rod on the opposite side of the output shaft. These weights aid in controlling the governor pressure-speed curve characteristics of the governor. Since a hole is made diametrically through the output shaft of the transmission, stress concentrations which are not advantageous may be formed in the shaft. In order to avoid the stress concentrations in the shaft, one-sided governors, i.e., governors adapted to be mounted on one side only of an output shaft, have been developed, and the present invention relates to such a governor.
The governors are of a non-linear-type in which the governor pressure is a function of the square of the revolutions per minute of the transmission output shaft. The governor pressure-speed curve of such governors is parabolic. Normally, the curve is improved by bottoming out governor weights at one or more midspeed points to piece together two or more parabolic curves, thereby lowering the slope of the total curve and providing a more proportional governor pressure-speed relationship.